Before you begin…

For those who haven’t even unlocked the botany class: The Botanist Guild is in Gridania (6,8).

Familiarize yourself with gaining EXP most efficiently! We have a Gathering General Leveling Guide for this. Key points are: Choosing the right levequests (ones with evaluation can potentially give insane EXP), keeping key pieces of gear up to date (for getting maximum EXP per node), and making the most out of every node (using skills properly).

Regarding Botany Class Quest Items, it’s ideal to farm for them BEFORE you hit the next quest. (For example, farm 99 Crow Feather before you reach Level 10). As a quick reference, we will put all items needed here (they are mentioned again in more detail on every section).

Where to find Latex and Maple Sap? You can complete both of these quests in one go, to save time. Get 10 Latex, and 50 Maple Sap before returning to Fufucha. You can also pick them up from Tradecraft NPC’s but I do not recommend it.

It’s worth noting that the Blessed Fieldkeep’s Hatchet from the Achievement “I Found That: Botanist V” for gathering and recording discovery of 230 unique items as a Botanist actually beats out all of the hatchets during levelling – even the HQ Highsteel! It has stats like this;

Ilvl 200
Vit: 30
Gathering: 292
Perception: 167

You can’t meld it, but I found that even with melds on the HQ Highsteel (Gathering: 274, Perception: 156) it didn’t beat those stats. I got it just by filling in all my gathering logs, so if people make an effort to do that as soon as they’re available, then you can get it quite early during levelling to 70! :)

First of all, thanks A LOT for this great guide, I’m a new-ish player and this saved me a lot of time!

Just a little heads up for anyone attempting Botanist Class Quest LVL70, not only the quest requires 5 normal items now (which has been covered correctly in this guide) but with Patch 4.2 “Ageless Words” doesn’t work anymore for this node in this particular scenario (this isn’t written anywhere in the patch note, but I just attempted it and it doesn’t work anymore sadly) so don’t bother wasting those 300GP on it, and use it to have 100% gathering chance instead (unless you have it already of course) else you’re forced to wait for the next time slot in order to complete the quest and it’s gonna be a pain. :(

I didn;t see it mentioned anywhere, but Its not necessary to grind lv 60 to 61 anymore, the stuff that Zhloe asks for for her orphanage gives excellent experience and was the same difficulty as the lv 58-59 stuff for me. Not to mention the storyline for that mini quest is actually interesting.

If you’re leveling crafters you need a small stock of some lower level items. Throw them away if your DoH is past the tier of your DoL – however this was made such a long time ago maybe I should just do away with suggested stockpile?

Not sure if this is changed after SB, but tbh I just grind on Cedar log collectible 51-60. I can get 54 collectible logs in ~10 minutes, thats just shy of 1 mil XP (54 ,is just how many free slots I have in my inventory). throw in Coerthan tea leaves every 10:00ET and thats coming close to 1.2Mil – 1.5Mil every 10 minute run. Obviously this isn’t good if you want to sell things or gather things for crafting, but if you just want to grind up to the SB area these days and have no leves, it’s not a bad way to do it. If you’re rich, perhaps Wind Widows are better @58 and cloud mushrooms @59, but I can hit the above XP numbers on the logs with NQ gear and some cheap melds. No fancy skill rotations involved, just grab the log, appraisal twice and usually collect two or three logs per tree. It’s mind numbing, but easy and fast.

idk if its a typo in the quest or a bug but I just completed my lvl 70 class quest with 5 NQ Rhalgr’s Streak. The actual turn-in didn’t ask for HQ either (I only had 2 anyway) so I’m not sure what’s going on because the quest tracker was listing that I had 5 HQ ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

Just finished the quest for Rhalgr’s Steak. I collected 5 NQ and HQ and for science decided to hand in the NQ ones first to see what merit the above comment had. The quest completed with only NQ items being handed in. I didn’t take a screenshot before but here is one just after my hand in. With what I had left after handing in the quest.https://i.gyazo.com/59afe300408cf5acb54e36716980fad4.png

You know, I feel something funny is going on with that quest. I had to submit NQ and HQ, maybe it was a strange bug of sorts, or they nerfed it. Either way if it’s just NQ I guess I’ll make a note on the guide. How very odd, even reviewing the quest in databases, HQ is the requested item…

Heyo, still planning on updating this? I am now getting into the Stormblood parts of gathering. Full NQ lvl 61 left side gear, random hodgepodge of right side gear to hit 600+ GP with food. HQ main hand at 62 feels godlike. I’ve managed to collect Gyr Abanian Wheat collectable off of a gathering +1 node (can’t do it with 4 whacks in my gear, need to 5th hit to get to 470 collectability). Looking forward to seeing the completed guide.

I would explain more the position of the quest items. Example for the 3 last logs for quest 50, you don’t say where, you don’t say that it’s a node that appears à 9 am in the coerthas providence zone.
I got a hard time locating many of these items. Maybe I’m unskilled :P

Just a note. You say that you cannot gather Spruce logs if you are not 50. This is incorrect. I am currently lvl 46 and have gathered them. You simply need to know which slot they are in (6). Simply make sure your Truth of Forests is turned on and run for the node when it becomes available. I am happy to provide photo video/ evidence. You can gather level 50 unspoiled nodes so long as you know which space holds the item and so long as your stats allow for it.

Hello! I’m very thankful for all the great advices you gave, but I’ve been wondering about the suggested stockpiles…
When you say 20 or 99 of each…is that NQ or HQ? I’ve been grinding for 20 HQ of each (and 99 for logs/ores) and it works just fine to level up, it’s slow, but it works :)
Just wanted to know ^^

I do believe it is mix&match as in crafting most items will call for either 1 or more items and you can mix in HQ for higher HQ progress at the start of the craft so its x20 in total in terms of the quest it would be atleast 10HQ for the turn in and just get a total of 30.

This guild helped me get to 60 Botany, so thank you. Some thoughts and corrections.

The collectibles you get at level 52 in Coerthas Western Highlands spawn at 10ET, not 12ET. Also, for the equipment upgrade, I would actually recommend NQ gear except for the tools, those should be HQ. Getting HQ gear is a bit overkill and saves a lot of money if you choose to but them. I believe there are some other times that are wrong but I don’t remember them

Just a heads up, but you can see the nodes in Falcon Nest at level 50 allowing you to gather cedar logs. The guide says you cannot see them until level 51. I was able to see the nodes and gather with a skill of 325 putting the node at 81%. It is far easier and much more lucrative to farm these for a level. The cedar logs are selling for 700+ Gil for normal quality and HQ is going for a minimum of 1400 a log on average on my server so certainly worth it to grind on. Just an fyi.

Aye, it’s impossible for me to give an blanket answer to all people of all servers. What to grind best can change from day to day depending on many things! The things I suggest are those likely to hold the most consistent value.

First of all, thank you forever for all of these guides, which I used to get to 50 and I’m using to get to 60. You’e a hero.

Second, there are two evaluation leves for each level but you only list one. I can help give names to the ones missing, but for the most part there is an 8-node 320 evaluation leve and a 4-node 160 evaluation leve for each tier.

Not that it matters because if your percentage is near 85% using the 100GP ability to raise by 15%, then trying to get 5 of the 7/8 point item and using the chain 4 ability to get the 9 item is easy to do and will result in always getting 25%.

How are we supposed to get to 600 GP? Even with food I wont get there. I’m level 52 with all of the 2.0 Botany gear. I only have 500k Gil. GP materia is silly expensive. You call 600 scrub tier but don’t tell us how to hit 600.

Your guide seems to imply that the level 55 gear is from LTW and WVR, when you can just buy it from the moogle vendor in Moghome.

Also, the whole guide could really be cleaned up. There’s a lot of useless fluff and misinformation that others have pointed out that makes it more difficult to understand than needs be. Honestly, I feel like I’d have more success just figuring things on my own than trying to follow this guide.

You can buy it from moghome, yes, you can! BUT – I’m not implying anything. MY ADVICE (wether you choose to follow it or not) is to obtain an HQ set, as it will give you great value in return. Even if you’re just leveling up one class or all 3.

I’m sorry you feel this way, but I can only do things either so quickly, or up to a certain quality. I’m time-bound like the rest of the players. Refinements will be made constantly.

Personally, this guide has been loads of help for me and I’m new to the gathering classes. Without this guide I’d of been rather clueless, so I’m not seeing what other people are. Might have a bit of extra fluff here and there, but it’s been really helpful for a new gatherer.

Oh know! I thought you had the mining table there on purpose. It was so helpful because we had both the botany and mining tables on the same page. Please put the mining table back. :) You could technically even re-name this page for both botany and mining since the same advice applies to both!

Are these meant to be HQ items, or NQ? The level 21-25 says to stash 30 Chamomile (15 for quest) but the quest calls for HQ, so now I’m wondering if I’ve been stopping my stash early at 20 NQ instead of 20 HQ for the other levels.

I’m at the raincatcher gully docks and I’m looking for the botany locations. I hone in and it tells me that they’re 233 yalms southeast, the thing is, there’s nothing but rock and no where to go in that direction.

Thats because your not high enough level? it happened to me when i was lvl 6 and had to go to east vein in central shroud. There was NO trees but the guide told me there was and when when i hone it says 200 yalms away. But after doing some leve quests and lvled up they appeared! :D

What are the stockpiles meant for? Why 119 Crow Feathers and not just 99 for the quest? And why 20 of each? Is it meant to be used for something else later on? Just wondering :) Trying to level up the most effecient way.

The things listed as ‘gather extra’ are the things most critical to crafting at that level. Whether you are crafting or if you are having something crafted using your materials. It makes sense to gather a few extra while you are out there than to have to go back because you need a few for your crafting skill.

This site is a little out of whack when it comes to Botany. It lists Obsidian as a Botany quest. It also doesn’t tell you accurately for Marjoram (the level 15 Botany quest). It also says Miner #: next to all of the supposed Botany quest items required for each level. I’ll be finding another guide to follow, one that is more accurate.

Your feedback caused those mistakes to be fixed…for that I’d like to thank you. As for finding another guide to follow, no one cares if you use this or not –buh bye.
As for the guys who are creating the guides on this site. Great job!